Another solutionWe embracedWas to incarcerate,Incarcerate, incarcerateUntil prisons overflowedAnd now prisons are outsourcedMoney makersAnd judges are forced To order prisoners releasedLest the prisons splitAnd spill criminals All over our country

We argue aboutWho kills peopleGuns or peopleAnd while we arguePeople areDying of gunshot woundsAnd one side yells,“They want to take our guns”But they don’t listenBecause nobody wantsTo take guns,They just want To stop people from dyingAnd what we’re doingIsn’t workingAnd putting moreGuns into our countryIs not the answer.

We are a shatteredCountryNo one seems toNotice or weepI sometimesImagine lady justiceWeeping unseen Under her blindfold.

Published by clisawork

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2 comments

nation is a notion of oppression,
we segregate ourselves geographically,
pitting man against man
under supposed banners of nationality,
mere excuses for selfish murder
of brothers of a different skin
and creed.

And who does this?
who works the strings of populous marionette?
why,
you’ve said it yourself,
we do.
We are America,
and we make those choices,
as we are humanity,
and we have made those choices.

Burying heads under eagles clad in olive branches,
spewing arrows and tail feathers on the RedWhiteAndBlue
simply lends an air of anonymity,
dehumanizes our hate and greed.

We sent our men and women,
indeed our children,
to die in foreign sand,
disfigured and dismembered,
lost.
We did that,
you and I,
and the collective stain that is humanity.

We sent them in nobility,
in defense of our ideals,
in defense of those who cannot defend themselves.
And,
we sent them in greed,
under the waving banner of the west,
to quash a dehumanized beast,
a foreign legion to whom
we cannot outsource our needs,
lest we incur the demon of globalization.

We sent them.
We bought the guns,
you and I.

Those are the minds that must change.
Not the savage jihadist,
not the weeping refugee.
We need not cure the sickness
of a gun hungry redneck,
behooded thug in the city.
We are the problem,
you and I.

Not sure I entirely agree with everything you have said, but I agree with the feelings you express, the outrage, the need to do something, to change something. Also the feeling of my own culpability, but at the same time a feeling that there has been deliberate action taken to undermine the individuals sense of culpability and also their ability to actually act – in the court systems, by police forces across the country, by media, and by local, state, and federal government. I will never ever endorse anarchy as an answer. Throughout history there have been examples of nations doing amazing good things – I still believe that the state can act on behalf of the people to protect and make a positive difference. You probably think I am naive but we agree to disagree. Thankyou for the poem – it very much expresses my own feelings. Thank you for stopping by. Lisa